2007-05-28
I wont hide it, I'm a Beaver fan. Beaver Nelson’s wry sense of humor and catchy folkie guitar licks have always provided entertainment for me onstage and here with the couple of albums we have of his. Beaver has been through some interesting times. His first major musical inspiration came as a teenager at a Christian summer camp. He penned songs, learned the guitar, self-duplicated and distributed tapes to his high school friends. Then he had some success in the Austin scene stemming from an open mic gig. He signed with a label, put together a band, and produced an album only to have it rejected and shelved because it was not grungy enough, which was the “shiny thing” for the label exec.s at that time. Finally Beaver was able to break on through to the other side with the release of some cool folk/Americana, singer/songwriter releases with critical acclaim. Again with lots of promise ahead, he got married, had kids, and lost the time and inspiration to write. Then as fate would have it, the second and ultimate summer-camp-type getaway experience of his life presented itself to him and he ran with it: a gig painting some lake homes. He brought his guitar along and sat it beside the buckets and ladders, spending 16 hour days painting in solitude and letting his mind stray to his hearts content. The result, Exciting Opportunity, is Nelson’s best work yet. -PeteThe opinions expressed in these reviews are those of the individual volunteers that submitted the article and do not necessarily reflect the views of WYCE or GRCMC; nor its staff, donors, or affiliates.